Tomato trauma

By Penny Stine

I planted tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and was so excited about the size of the plants, which I had raised from seed. I had at least seven different varieties, including two pink Caspian tomatoes, which I started because Dixie Burmeister said they were wonderful. The ones on this trellis are doing just fine.

The weeds are, too. But the weeds will be history after this weekend.

I marked almost all of the plants with a color-coded yarn system so I could keep track of which tomatoes I liked and which were flops. I ran out of different colored bits of yarn in my pockets, so this one is marked in blue tape. Really, it is. I put the tape higher up on the trellis because I'm counting on the tomato plant to get a lot taller. It's a Cherokee chocolate, which I've never grown before.

Much to my great distress, something ate my pink Caspians completely down to the ground within the first couple of days.

As if that wasn't traumatic enough, something gnawed through the stems of at least three other tomato plants.

Bookcliff Gardens has pink Caspian tomatoes this year, thanks to Dixie's polite nagging of Dennis Hill. Even though I spent tons of time and money on seeds and raised all those tomatoes, I went to Bookcliff and bought a pink Caspian to replace the two I lost.

On the positive side, the cucumbers that I was waiting ever-so-(im)patiently for finally sprouted!